Rodney Ellis

Isiah Hill looked at the big man on the other side of the prison visitor's window as if his life depended on him, because it did.

Christopher Scott had done time in prison, too — 12 years for murder. But then another man confessed to the crime, and Scott persuaded a judge he was innocent. In 2009, he walked out of prison, and later received $886,666 in compensation from the state, plus a $4,915 monthly check.

Now Scott was on the other side of the prison bars wearing a glittering diamond pinkie ring, a guide who knew the road to freedom.

Hill, the son of a whiskey bootlegger who'd dropped out of school in sixth grade to pick cotton, couldn't read. His cellmate had...

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Isiah Hill looked at the big man on the other side of the prison visitor's window as if his life depended on him, because it did.
Christopher Scott had done time in prison, too — 12 years for murder. But then another man confessed to the crime, and Scott...